The default is indeed 3 minutes. I wouldn't recommend reducing it. I have mine set at 5 min (and the padding after the end at 25 min).

The settings to change the padding are in "Margin before/after recording (minutes)" in MENU>Setup>TV>Recording settings. They can be set to anything from 0 to 120 min.

The Beyonwiz will place marks at the points where the broadcaster says that programs actually start. That's sometimes not where the program actually starts, either, sometimes because of the data the broadcaster sends is wrong, and sometimes because of a bug in the Beyonwiz code. I know how to fix the Beyonwiz code, but there's not much that can be done about the broadcaster data, nor with the broadcasters' rather cavalier approach to their schedules.

On playback, you can skip between the marks (orange vertical lines across the progress bar in the infobar display) using PREV/NEXT (they're just automatically placed bookmarks).

In the context of pre-program padding, it's also useful to remember that all times in IceTV are rounded to the nearest 5 minutes.

Thanks all. I was playing with the ui today and also found the padding settings. There is a lot to learn about my new Beyonwiz T4 and there doesn't seem to be good documentation about all the features (that I can find).

While the documentation may be really bad, the brains trust at the Beyonwiz forum are extremely knowledgeable, friendly, and helpful. If you have a problem, just ask and I'm sure you'll get a helpful response within a very short timeframe.

The Beyonwiz forum people have been of great assistance to me, in learning how to get the best out of my T2s.